Central Queensland grazing enterprises have trialled an innovative remote livestock management system with a focus on reducing sediment loss and increasing productivity.
Supported by Fitzroy Basin Association through funding from the Queensland Government's Reef Water Quality Program, the project saw a walk-over weigh unit used in conjunction with satellite pasture data as a tool to enable better grazing land management decisions.
FBA senior land management officer Ellie Carter said these improved decisions would lead to a reduction of sediment and nutrient losses to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, and enhance the productivity and profitability of grazing businesses.
"The project aimed to trial and validate the use of RLMS technology in conjunction with the normalised difference vegetation index, or satellite pasture data, across land types in the Fitzroy," Ms Carter said.
"Greenness data can be accessed by anyone on a map, but it's when we have long term greenness data along with rainfall records and liveweight data from the walk-over weigh unit, that we can then forward project what's going to help with our cattle and our land.
"It can also help to advise us on stocking rates - we know what the growth rates of the plants are, so therefore we know when we're going to start to run out of feed."
Ms Carter said using the technology, the three landholders involved in the project had reduced grazing pressures on their property, ultimately improving ground cover and decreasing sediment runoff.
"Due to dry seasonal conditions, the greenness data has been reasonably ineffective, however over the last few months all three participants have now had some much-needed rainfall and the NDVI data will now be accessible through the Datamars online portal MiHub," she said.
"We anticipate sediment savings will increase as the season improves and the landholders refine their land management and grazing practices.
"This should result in more profitable enterprises for our landholders and better water quality entering the reef."
The remote livestock management system, or walk-over weigh unit, is a solar powered unit with the ability to transmit data straight to the landholder's device from a remote location via satellite or 3G telemetry systems.
Pasture forecasting tool boosts profitability
To trial and validate the use of remote livestock management technology in conjunction with satellite pasture data, three grazing enterprises took part in the Fitzroy Basin Association project.
Conducted across different land types and management systems, Peter Frame, Barnett, Blackwater, Keegan and Zilla Green, Old Good Hope, Springsure, and Peter and Nikki Mahony, Gyranda, Theodore, tested the usefulness of the technology and the ability to implement it into their operations.
Mr Mahony said the technology had worked well, it had been easy to implement and the data had been a useful decision-making tool.
"We try and rotationally graze across the whole farm and this is just an intensive way to be able to try and manage that rotational grazing, hopefully with a bit more science behind it," he said.
"The critical thing we're trying to target is that weight at joining; what weight do our heifers need to be to get into calf as yearlings, so that's what we're trying to use this tool to really fine tune."
Developer of the walk-over weigh unit, Tim Driver, Datamars, said one of the many benefits of the system was around the marketing of livestock.
"So knowing exactly what kilos you have in the paddock at any one time and then being able to match it up with the markets to ensure that you're making the most out of your animals," he said.
"The goal here was to really understand how we can build a forecasting tool to not only know what the weight of animals are today and what their weight distributions are in regards to markets, but how do we actually forecast that forward and involve pasture management techniques to achieve the desired marketing goals for producers."